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I moved to this new home and studio almost a year and a half ago now and I’ve had many requests from followers and students for some tips on studio organization. I definitely understand the hope that someone will have just the answer that will make me feel like I know where everything is and it is easy to use.
Tapestry weaving can seem like a pursuit that requires A LOT. A lot of equipment, materials, and knowledge.
It doesn’t have to be that way. Weaving tapestry can be quite simple and your materials and equipment do not have to be complicated. If you want to learn tapestry weaving, below are some suggestions for how to get started. There are also many resources for people already deep into the tapestry experience, but this post is mostly for people who are pretty new to tapestry weaving.
I can hardly believe it has been almost five years that I’ve been running Change the Shed, my free YouTube tapestry weaving live event. I still do it twice a month and plan on continuing that. I have had so many people support this program through donations and I appreciate all of you more than you’ll ever know. But the time has come to get some more consistent support so this program can continue.
To that end, I’ve started a Patreon page. Patreon is a sort of membership site created to support artists and creators. In general, creators ask for support from people who follow them in exchange for some sort of learning or community opportunity. The membership rates are low and the funds help the creator continue their work.
There is a lot of joy in getting together with a group of people who love the same things you do. I think we can safely say the people who came to my Taos retreat this month love yarn. Everyone has a different reason for weaving tapestry and those differences are always interesting for me to observe and ask about when I’m teaching. But generally we can all come together around the love of creating and yarn.
In the workshop this month I had a lot of different approaches. One student was motivated to study tapestry for historical and sociological reasons related to her family and their place or origin. Another student was very interested in Norwegian weaving and using that style to express personal images. Someone else was working on recovery from the death of a spouse and the feelings of loss and recovery that brought up. There were students who were interested in three dimensional tapestry, depicting water, interpreting dreams, interpreting life events, or working from inspiration other tapestry artists’ work brought them.
If you wove along with me in the winter trees project in November and December, thank you! I know some of you are still weaving or are just starting your winter scenes now. I wanted to post a little update with my finished projects and a link to those of yours that I’ve collected so far.
If you’d like to join the project, there is a free PDF in my blog post on November 13, 2024 you can download for ideas and guidance. You can find that blog post HERE.
I wove two projects. The first was a pine tree in the snow.
During the holidays I was able to return to my hometown of Gallup, New Mexico to watch my favorite balloon festival, the Red Rock Balloon Rally. This small invitational rally is full of skilled pilots and beautiful balloons. They fly among the red rock canyons of Red Rock State Park. I find the flight of these balloons through the canyons and against the brilliant blue sky inspiring.
During the retreat I taught in Taos last month, I took a bit of time at lunch to walk downtown and duck into a couple of stores I like to visit. I was long out of time, but was walking by the Taos Center for the Arts (TCA) before racing through Kit Carson park back to my students when I remembered an important detail I failed to put on the class calendar that week. The Ancestral Futures show was still up at the TCA. So I resolved to be late and ducked into the gallery. I was so glad I did!
This post is full of images of outstanding tapestry and fiber artists from Northern New Mexico, both contemporary and passed on now. I hope you enjoy the photos!
